Introduction

Greetings!

Frontline in Focus is now a year old! And since the social change sector keeps moving and inspiring us, this e-newsletter still has a reason to exist. In this issue we hear about Frontline's growing connection to Detroit and we profile our affiliate Tim McIntosh, the "Barber Philanthropist" of Durham, North Carolina.

If you see an article you like, pass the newsletter on to friends and colleagues. Thanks for reading!

The Frontline Solutions Team

What We're Doing: School's in Session in the Motor City

Frontline's learning agenda, projects, and partnerships have led us to Detroit over the last few years. Through connecting with the city's youth, civic leaders, and foundations, our appreciation has grown for Detroit—a great American city known for its sobering reality but also its untapped potential.

It was an easy decision for Frontline to devote a chapter to Detroit, and to one of the city's dynamic grassroots leaders, in our forthcoming publication, Five.

Detroit teens take part in a focus group for the 44 Project

A few years ago, we decided to invest in our own learning about Detroit, including the ways in which different groups and change agents help shape city renewal. A project funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation called 44 has helped shine light on the views of the city's African-American youth ("44" refers to the percentage of African-American teens in Detroit currently unemployed and lacking proper job readiness resources). Through facilitating focus groups, our Frontline team has gained insight not only on the obstacles that Black youths face, but also the assets they bring to their community and the transformation they want to see.*

As Frontline's resident expert on education and parent engagement, Ryan Bowers visited Detroit to connect with advocacy organizations and learn about the city's school turnaround process, specifically how parents of school communities can help steer school reform. The work of Detroit Parent Network (DPN) is particularly instructive. Through a partnership with Detroit Public Schools, DPN has led the way with its parent empowerment model. And through trainings, workshops, and resource centers, DPN has also helped increase parent involvement citywide by 37 percent.          

In the world of philanthropy, the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation represents what deep and lasting commitments to a single place look like. Bucking the conventional wisdom of breaking funding down by priority area, Skillman targets its resources and "system change strategies" on six Detroit communities through its Good Neighborhoods program.

Issues like depopulation, unemployment, and violent crime have numerous case studies in Detroit, but on the other hand, the city provides many examples of effective social change. By continuing to follow the efforts of youth leaders, advocates, funders, and other Motor City change agents, our learning is bound to increase.

*Go here for a great photo essay by our affiliate Pendarvis Harshaw published by turnstylenews.com.

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What Our Affiliates Are Doing: Tim McIntosh

This profile is an excerpt of a longer piece that will appear in a forthcoming publication, Five.

Some individuals have a sophisticated theory of why they work for social change. That is not so for Tim McIntosh, a barber and philanthropist living in Durham, North Carolina. He explains his compassion in simple terms: "I want others to have the same opportunity I had," he said.

That was the main inspiration for McIntosh to open up his Park West Barber School in Durham in 2006. With business partner Ed Bell, McIntosh co-manages Park West, a second school in Greensboro, and the Renaissance Barbershop, located in south Durham. In addition, McIntosh founded the Barber Foundation, an arm of the Park West that recruits students for service projects. He is also a member of a giving circle called the Next Generation of African-American Philanthropists.

Through the creation of all these enterprises, McIntosh's barbershop and school have become fertile ground for compassionate service. For his accomplishments, the Association of Black Foundation Executives recently honored him as the "Barber Philanthropist" at the Emerging and Institutional Awards for Philanthropic Leadership, held in April.

McIntosh takes his business as seriously as he does his philanthropic efforts. He and Park west staff are dedicated to making the school "a leading provider of barber education." Yet, he still finds ways to integrate a community-focused mission into his business. Park West's students, for example, include ex-offenders whose record might prevent them from enrolling elsewhere. Members of the Durham community have benefited from events like Health Awareness Day, which provided men received free haircuts in exchange for participating in a free blood pressure test. Coordinated by the Barber Foundation, the event's inspiration drew from an NPR report McIntosh had heard about black men and their alarming rates of high blood pressure and diabetes.  

One of McIntosh's end goals is to keep recruiting more students for community service. "Some catch on quicker, some take longer to catch on, but at least I know they've been exposed to it," says McIntosh. Those who embrace his message typically commit for the long haul. "They get the bug, it feels good. They take the baton and run with it."

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